The
Days of Creation

Blaine Robison, M.A.

Scripture: Unless otherwise indicated Scripture quotations are taken from the
New American Standard Bible (Updated Edition 1995). Scripture quotations may be translated by the author or
taken from different versions. Click here for
Abbreviations of Bible Versions.

Sources: Bibliographic data for works cited may be found at the end of the
article.

Syntax:
The meaning of Hebrew words is taken from The
New Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (1981), cited as
"BDB."

Terminology: In order to emphasize the Hebraic and Jewish character of the entire
Bible I use the terms Yeshua (Jesus), Messiah
(Christ), Tanakh (Old Testament), and
Besekh (New Testament).

Abstract: The Bible declares that God created
the heavens and the earth in six days (Ex 20:11; 31:17). The dating of
creation is uncertain, but the account of earth history in the Bible fixes
the creation of the heavens and the earth at not more than several thousand
years ago. Yet, some followers of Yeshua interpret the biblical material in
such a way that challenges the viewpoint of a young earth.
This article seeks to answer these
challenges and demonstrate the support for a recent creation in Genesis.

Introduction

Among followers of Yeshua the
subject of origins and the Genesis account of creation has unfortunately
become divisive with some subscribing to Old Earth Creation (OEC) and others
adhering to Young Earth Creation (YEC). The OEC viewpoint came about with
the response of Christian writers to the influence of Charles Darwin
(1809-1882) and his book Origin of the Species by Means of Natural
Selection (1859). Nineteenth century Christian scholars attempted to
reconcile the creation account of Genesis with the theory of evolution
advocated by Darwin and his successors. These efforts continued into the
20th century in the work of various Christian scientists and Bible scholars.

According to evolutionist
theory the universe came into existence by a "big bang" some 15 billion or
so years ago. All the matter and all the energy in the entire universe was
packed into a single "cosmic egg," a super-dense electron-sized particle. An
instability arose, and it exploded ("boom!"), producing an even distribution
of matter and energy in all directions. Basically, matter created itself.
The formation of the solar system and the earth followed about 10 billion
years later. (The oldest rocks on earth are dated about 3.8 billion years
old.) Then humanoids appeared, having evolved from lower forms about 1-2
million years ago. The primary proofs offered for the advanced age of the
earth is the light from distant stars, the geological stratification of the
earth and the fossil record.

Thus, Christian scientists
and Bible scholars sought a mediating solution. They made the mistake of
assuming that evolutionistic scientists are people of integrity who would
not knowingly falsify data or misinterpret data. The present generation is
probably unfamiliar with the frauds of alleged human ancestors: Lucy, Java
Man, Peking Man, Piltdown Man and others. Evolution begins with an
assumption of atheism and omitting God from the study of origins makes them
fools. They are thus predisposed to error.

Christian Solutions

[NOTE: The linked names are to Internet articles with
more information on the theory and a critique of the theory.]

This position treats the
Genesis narrative as parabolic literature instead of historical fact and its
adherents accept whatever evolutionists say about scientific processes.
Essentially God used evolution to create. Theistic evolutionists accept
death and decay before Adam and treat the Genesis creation account as a
Jewish tradition. (This is a subtle form of antisemitism.) Theistic
evolution elevates unproven theories over divine revelation, contradicts
Scripture and undermines the doctrine of divine inspiration.

The Intelligent Design
Movement (IDM) is an informal collaboration dedicated to exposing the
problems with naturalistic evolution. As a movement, IDM challenges
Darwinian evolution in schools, textbooks, and politics. The Intelligent
Design movement is led by scholars who argue that the design of living
systems—and even the nonliving elements of the universe—suggest a Designer.
Unfortunately, the proponents of IDM imply credit of the design to an
anonymous "someone," not the God of the Bible.

This position assumes the
earth and universe are billions of years old and the so-called geologic
column is assumed to be evidence of an old earth. This position has liberal
and conservative adherents. The more liberal picture God as doing relatively
little in the way of actual creative acts during the supposed billions of
years of creation. God simply steps-in now and then, to create new life
forms. The more conservative Progressive Creationists present God creating
the heavens and the earth ex nihilo (out of nothing), but just taking
a long time to do it, achieving results in numerous progressive steps. They
also credit God with many more creation miracles and generally reject the
transitional forms of biological evolution.

Although there is difference
of opinion among progressive creationists concerning many details of
biblical interpretation, they generally believe that the "Big Bang" proposed
by evolutionists was actually God's way of speaking stars and galaxies into
existence through billions-of-years of natural processes. Like the theistic
evolutionists, progressive creationists accept death and bloodshed as
existing from the very beginning of Creation and these defects of nature
were not the result of Adam's sin. Man was created after the vast majority
of Earth's history of life and death had already taken place. Finally, the
flood of Noah's time was local, not global, and it had little effect on the
planet.

The Day-Age theory is part of
Progressive Creationism. The key principle in this theory is that the "days"
in Genesis 1 were of indefinite length. Advocates invariably appeal to Peter's allusion to
Psalm 90:10 in saying, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a
thousand years as one day" (2Pet 3:8). It is claimed that the first three
"days" of creation were not governed by movement of the sun and moon, so
these days must have been of indefinite length. Also, too much activity took
place on the sixth day (Genesis 2) to fit into a normal day: Adam's naming
of thousands of animals, his perception of his loneliness, and the
subsequent creation of Eve. [NOTE: The narrative does say that Adam named
thousands of animals, only that he gave names to the animals that God
brought to him (Gen 2:20), which was intended to impress upon Adam his
uniqueness and aloneness.]

Advocates of this position
interpret Revelation 12:4 as referring to a prehistoric event, and thus
assumes an indefinite time break must have occurred between Genesis 1:1 and
Genesis 1:2. During this "gap" angelic warfare cause destruction of God's
original creation and the rest of Genesis 1 is the story of God
reconstructing what Satan had destroyed. The Scofield Reference Bible
(1909) was a champion of the Gap Theory (or the Ruin-Reconstruction Theory)
and has influenced many conservative Christians. If Revelation 12:4 depicts
a heavenly catastrophe it had no connection with God's creation. In fact,
the "star-throwing" event could have occurred at any time during ancient
history. It could have been a trigger event for opening the "windows of
heaven" (Gen 7:11; 8:2) that unleashed the global flood of Noah's day (BBMS
184).

Assessment

There is
no intention in this article of doubting someone's relationship with Yeshua
on the basis of their view of origins. I want to encourage all believers to
be like the noble-minded Jews of Berea who examined the Scriptures to
confirm what they had been taught (Acts 17:10-11). In my view the weaknesses
of the Christian positions on origins listed above have been ably
demonstrated by creation scientists (BBMS 115-125). For a concise comparison
of the various beliefs about origins see the
chart prepared by Dr. Henry Morris. The various compromises have serious
deficiencies:

• These positions contradict Scripture,
change the meaning of Bible words or twist passages to mean what they want
them to mean.

As for the supposed proofs of an old
earth, young earth advocates have offered the following solutions:

• No proven FACT of science contradicts
the Bible, but evolutionist assumptions and theoretical models do contradict
the Bible.

• The light from distant stars may be
explained by Einstein's theory of General Relativity and change in the speed
of light.

• No intermediate forms have ever been
found in the fossil record, which can be explained by the global flood of
Noah's time. An animal dying won't create a fossil, because it decays over
time. Fossilization requires rapid burial.

•
Symbiotic relationships in nature, such as birds or butterflies that
pollinate specific plants, had to have been created at the same time for
either to exist.

Biblical Cosmogony

Cosmogony is a technical term
that refers to a theory or story of the origin and development of the
universe, the solar system, or the earth-moon system. According to the Genesis
narrative
creation included these basic characteristics.

Divine Origin

In Scripture the Person
responsible for the existence of all things is called the Creator. The
biblical term is not a noun but a participial form of the Hebrew verb
bara (SH-1254) in Ecclesiastes 12:1, Isaiah 27:11; 40:28; 43:1, and 15.
In the LXX and the Besekh the Greek verb is ktizō, (SG-2936), meaning
to create, form, shape, or make. In Scripture these two verbs are only used
of the creative activity of God. A participle is considered a verbal
adjective. It is often a word that ends with an "-ing" in English (such as
"speaking," "having," or "seeing"). It can be used as an adjective or
substitute as a noun. The use of the participle indicates that creating is
an essential part of the nature of God.

Genesis 1 describes the
origin of the heavens and earth as the unilateral and independent decision
and act of Elohim (God). God did not need any help nor would he
resort to an unpredictable and wasteful process conceived of in evolution.
Compromise theories essentially turn God into an inefficient scientist.
The word Elohim, which is the plural form of Eloah, occurs 32
times in the first chapter. Elohim represents the full triunity of
God (Father + Son + Spirit). A mathematical equation that represents the
nature of God is not 1+1+1=1, but 1x1x1=1. (In this multiplication formula
inserting more "ones" does not change the result.) That is the mystery of
God. Throughout the chapter Elohim is working and the very nature of
the universe attests to the plurality of the Creator. The universe is a
compound unity of time, space, and matter, each of which also consist of
three parts.

In Genesis 2:4 the Creator is
identified as YHVH-Elohim. YHVH is translated in Christian
Bibles with "LORD" (small caps) and in
the Messianic Jewish versions with "ADONAI"
(small caps). This translation convention may be confusing to Christians
since there is a separate Hebrew word of Adonai. Contrary to
Christian scholarship the correct pronunciation of YHVH is not known
with any certainty. While not reflected in Bible translations YHVH is
not a title or a word for a deity, but the personal name of the God of
Israel (Ex 3:15; 2Chr 14:11; Isa 42:8). Thus, Moses made it clear that the
Creator was not just an anonymous monotheistic being, but the God who
revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush and established the
everlasting covenants with the patriarchs and Israel (Ex 20:11). For more
information on the name YHVH see my web article
The Blessed Name.

Ex
Nihilo

The Latin phrase means lit.
"out of nothing." There was no "big bang," only a "Big Word" (John 1:1-3).
God spoke matter into existence. The universe did not begin with matter
already in existence as evolution teaches. God said, "Let there be" and it
happened. It did not take God billions of years to speak those words. A
psalmist declared: "For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it
stood fast" (Ps 33:9). Paul affirmed, "By faith we understand that the
worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made
out of things which are visible" (Heb 11:3).

Geocentric

The creation narrative has a
geocentric point of view in that the earth is the focus of most of the
recorded acts of creation and the center of God's attention throughout
Scripture. Humanistic science with its "heliocentric" orientation attempts
to marginalize earth by its focus on the solar system and interstellar space
and searches for life "out there." Earth becomes insignificant because it is
just a speck in the universe. Contrary to science the Bible never asks,
"what is earth?" (compared to the cosmos), but "what is man?" (Job 7:17; Ps
8:4; compared to God).

Perfect Creation

Six times in Genesis 1 (3,
10, 12, 18, 21, 25), God describes His work with the Hebrew adjective tov
(SH-2896), "pleasant, agreeable, good, excellent, beautiful," and verse 31
climaxes with "very good." The LXX renders the adjective with kalos
(SG-2570), meeting a high standard or an exceptionally high quality;
especially such that inspires or motivates others to embrace what is
beautiful or praiseworthy (HELPS). God could not be more pleased with the
artistry of His creation. In every work of creation on every day the result
was without defect, all functioning in the manner intended and in complete
harmony. There was no death, no chaos, no sin.

Completed Creation

The verb to make or bring
forth (asah, SH-6213; BDB 793) occurs seven times in Genesis 1. The
verb has two kinds of meaning, first, "to do," and is often used in the
Tanakh of "doing" or obeying commandments, and it often means working or
toiling in physical labor. The second kind of meaning has to do with making
something material and may be translated as make, construct, produce, or
create. The use of asah with this kind of meaning also indicates that the
subject is active in bringing about the result. In Genesis 1 the verb asah
is used of God making or bringing forth the firmament (v. 7), the fruit of
the trees (v. 11 & 12), the sun and moon (v. 16), the animals (v. 25),
mankind (v. 26), and all that was created in the six days (v. 31).

In each case the verb is an
imperfect tense, indicating continuous action until the work was completed.
The narrative repeats the verb in 2:2-4 three times. In 2:2 the verb is
perfect tense, which denotes action completed in past time, and in verses 3
and 4 the verb is an infinitive construct, which expresses the result of the
creative action. Each thing brought into existence had no previous
existence. There was no "natural development" in any of these creations. God
spoke each molecule and element into existence. "Thus the heavens and the
earth were completed, and all their hosts" (Gen 2:1-2). The Hebrew verb
rendered "completed" is kalah (SH-3615), which means accomplish, at
an end, complete, or finish. The LXX renders kalah with sunteleō,
which means properly, to culminate or consummate, reach the desired
end-point, the result (HELPS).

Linear Time

One of the implied teachings
of Genesis, found in the creation week, and the birth chronologies, has to
do with how God thinks of time. The myth makers of the pagan nations did not
conceive of time in terms of a historical linear ordering of events reaching
from a historical beginning to a final consummation of all things. Instead,
they regarded time as cyclical, based on the continuous change of seasons.
In pagan myths time has no significance and no meaning. (The same could be
said of evolution.) The Bible presents time as linear. A man’s behavior in
the present will determine his state in the future. Man’s time on earth has
great value and so we must consider carefully how we use our time. Moses
said in Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart
of wisdom" (NKJV).

Seven
Days

Beginning

In
Genesis 1:1 the time reference "beginning," (Heb. rêshit, SH-7225;
BDB 912), cannot possibly mean billions of years. "Beginning" indicates the
starting point, the first step in a series of events. In addition, the six
days of creation in Genesis 1 function as parameters for defining the extent
of "the beginning."

The Day

The Hebrew noun yôm
(SH-3117; BDB 398), "day" occurs eleven times in Genesis 1. The Hebrews did
not conceive of time in the abstract, but used yom overwhelmingly in
the sense of ordinary measurable time. Yom occurs 2,203 times in the
Tanakh. Out of these occurrences about 90% refer to a calendar event or some
portion of a 24-hour day. Its first mention in Genesis 1:5 is used to mean
daylight in contrast to night since creation began in darkness and God had
just created light. Afterwards yôm is used to denote a specific
division of time: (1) the basic 24-hour unit of the calendar (Gen 1:14); (2)
a working day (Ex 20:9); (3) a day's journey (Num 11:31), (4) a component of
the duration of decreed activities and events (e.g., Gen 7:4; Ex 12:15; Lev
12:2); and (5) the time or duration of prophesied events (Jer 23:5; Ezek
4:5; Dan 12:11-12; cf. Rev 11:3; 12:6).

Yôm is used to allude
to past events that may seem general in nature: (1) in Genesis 2:4 yôm
is used to refer to the six days of creation; (2) yôm is used to
summarize the length of a person's life (Gen 5:5); (3) yôm is used as
a time reference for the reign of a monarch (Gen 14:1); (4) yôm is
used for the period of time spent in mourning (Gen 27:41); and (5) yôm
is used for the time of harvest (Gen 30:14). All of these time references
still rely on the basic concept of a finite and measurable period of time.

A special use of yôm
is in the preposition-noun construction miyôm, which lit. means "from
the day," "from today," "since the time of" or "from this day onward" (Gen
47:27; Ex 10:6; Lev 23:15; Deut 9:24). Unfortunately, some Bible versions
obscure this meaning with its translation of "eternity" in Isaiah 43:13
(AMP, NAB, NASB, NLT TLB, and TLV). In this verse these versions treat
miyôm as meaning eternal time before creation or an indefinite time of
eternal past to eternal future. However all other Bible versions treat
miyom in this verse as a definite reference point, either before
creation, since creation, or from the time Isaiah was given the message.
Of interest is that the Hebrew noun olam (SH-5769), which can mean
indefinite time, whether past or future, does not occur until Genesis 3:22.

First Mention

Almost 90 important words in
Scripture, such as "angel," "atonement," "command," "covenant," "holy,"
"man," "salvation" and "worship" first occur in Genesis. All the first
mentions have substantive meaning. Indeed, it would be contrary to sound
communication principles for a word to have an indefinite meaning the first
time it is used in the Bible.

Evening and Morning

The second use of yôm
in the Bible is described as a period of time consisting of an evening and
morning (Gen 1:5). This description is applied to each of the six days of
creation (Gen 1:8, 13, 19, 23 and 31), and after this in Hebrew and Jewish
culture the "day" was reckoned in this manner. The word for "evening" Heb.
erev (SH-6153) by itself is not a definite clock time, but a
reference to the hours of diminished light beginning at sunset (e.g., Gen
8:11; 24:11). The word for "morning," Heb. boqer (SH-1242), denotes
the end of night, the coming of dawn and then the hours of the day from
sunrise to sunset (e.g., Gen 19:27). The fact that the sun and moon were not
created until the fourth day does not negate the description of the first
three days as being the length of an evening and morning.

What would God have to say to
make it clear that "evening and morning" means a 24-hour day? If yôm
means a long age of a thousand, million or billion years, then how long was
the evening portion? How long was the morning portion? If "evening" and
"morning" are meaningless words, then the words "seasons" and "years" in
Genesis 1:14 would likewise be meaningless. If yôm can't be taken
literally in Genesis 1, then it's impossible to determine its meaning. If
the straightforward meaning of the Hebrew word isn't accepted, then the
meaning of every other word in Genesis 1, indeed the whole Bible, is
uncertain. The person who does not know what yôm means or believes
that the true meaning cannot be known cannot accuse anyone who believes he
knows of being wrong. Uncertainty is not a trump card against certainty.

Day With a Number

Counting
or numbering days (cf. Ps 90:12) was an integral part of Hebrew culture as
indicated in the calendar that regulated agricultural and religious life and
the many genealogical lists in Scripture enumerating the lifespans of
important people. Thus, every time yôm occurs with a number (e.g.,
"third day"), it always has a literal meaning. Such a designation occurs
over 100 times in the Torah alone. If "third day" in Genesis 1 is
meaningless, then what does the assertion of Abraham circumcising Isaac on
the eighth day (Gen 21:4) mean?

A Thousand Years?

"But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years
like one day." (2Pet 3:8)

Some people attempt to use
Peter's contrast of a thousand years to a day to rebut the straightforward
meaning of yôm in Genesis 1 by treating Peter's saying as simply a
restatement of Psalm 90:4, "For a thousand years in Your sight are like
yesterday when it passes by." Moses stressed that God is not bound by time
as people are (Psalm 90:2). Thus, when God exercises His patience to allow
people to be saved, a thousand earth years may go by. As appealing as this
interpretation might be, it ignores the fact that Moses and Peter were
discussing two entirely different subjects.

Peter's contrast
doesn't work unless we know how long a thousand years last in terms of
calendar days. If yôm is indefinite and meaningless, then so is the
expression "a thousand years." Maybe Peter meant a million years or a
billion years. Interestingly, the early church fathers took Peter's words
literally and interpreted the passage as meaning that just as there were six
days of creation so there would be a thousand years of history for each
creation day, and then the Day of the Lord would usher in the seventh or
Sabbath millennium, just as God rested on the seventh day after creation.
(See The Epistle of Barnabas
15; Irenaeus, Against Heresies V,
28:3; Julius Africanus, Five Books of Chronography,
III; Commodianus, Instructions,
80; and Lactantius, The Divine Institutes,
7:14.)

The fact that Peter stated
his proposition forwards and backwards is significant. The context shows
that Peter is answering mockers who dispute the reality of the Second Coming
by giving them an overview of history beginning with creation (verse 5) and
concluding with the day of judgment (verse 7). These two events are the
bookends of earth history. Therefore, it makes sense that Peter's cryptic
comment has to do with God's perspective of earth history.

The Seven-Day Week

Genesis introduces the first
mentions of the components of the calendar: day (Heb. yôm, Gen 1:5),
week (Heb. shabua, Gen 29:27), month (Heb. chodesh, Gen 7:11),
and year (Heb. shanah, Gen 1:14). The "day" is measured by the
regular appearance of the sun as the earth rotates, the "month" is measured
by the moon's phases as it revolves around the earth, and the "year" is
measured by the annual rotation of the heavens as the earth orbits the sun.
The week is the only calendar component that has no astronomical basis. Yet,
all human cultures since the beginning of time have observed the seven-day
week.

Perhaps mankind simply
imitated God's first week because He hallowed it (Gen 2:3), but more likely
when God created man in His image He imprinted the week into man's DNA. The
commandment to work six days and rest the seventh day came as no surprise
and the basis for obedience is the fact that God had created the heavens and
the earth in six days and rested the seventh (Exodus 20:11; 31:17).

Some cultures have tried a
"week" of slightly more or less than seven days for a while, but they found
it unworkable. Indeed, the revolutionary governments of France in 1792 and
Russia in 1929 tried to change the traditional week, hoping to destroy
Christianity. The French set up a ten-day week and the Soviets a five-day
week. They were rigidly enforced, but lasted only a few years (Henry Morris,
The Long War Against God, 311). It may be that the end-times
anti-Messiah will attempt the same reordering of the calendar (Dan 7:25),
but he will fail. The seven-day week continues to stand as a unique and
unmistakable testimony to the first week of history.

Conclusion

The willingness of
well-educated people to adopt the compromise theories listed above is a
mystery. Why do they not want to believe the Bible? Part of the answer may
lie in the tendency of so many Christians today to make themselves the
ultimate determiner concerning what the Bible means. It is no surprise that
these same Christians pick and choose what commandments they want to follow. For me the summaries of the
creation of the heavens and the earth in six days and rest on the seventh
day in Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:17 are sufficient evidence for taking
Genesis 1 literally. Moses was the recipient of divine revelation and an
unimpeachable authority. To contradict Moses is folly. Just believe.